Intellectual property investor and developer IP Group reported a “highly successful” 2021 in a trading update on Thursday, indicating that it now expected profit to be higher than £425m.
The FTSE 250 company said the year included a large number of “significant” transactions, including the flotation of Oxford Nanopore Technologies on the London Stock Exchange, and the sales of Inivata and WaveOptics.
As a result, its board now expected profit to be above £425m – a marked increase from the £185.4m it recorded for 2020.
Hard net asset value per share was anticipated to be above 165p, making for a return of at least 31%.
“The group is in a strong financial position with net cash and deposits of £276m at year-end,” the board said in its statement.
“The group’s portfolio is well funded with portfolio companies having raised over £2bn in 2021.
“This, combined with the exciting prospects and investment opportunities within the portfolio, gives us confidence for 2022.”
IP Group said it would announce its 2021 results in mid-March.
At 0901 GMT, shares in IP Group were up 5.38% at 115.7p.
